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Goliath's curse : the history and future of societal collapse / by Kemp, Luke,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A radical retelling of human history through collapse -- from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. Why do civilisations collapse? Is human progress possible? Are we approaching our endgame? For the first 200,000 years of human history, hunter-gathering Homo sapiens lived in fluid, egalitarian civilizations that thwarted any individual or group from ruling permanently. Then, around 12,000 years ago, that began to change. As we reluctantly congregated in the first farms and cities, people began to rely on novel lootable resources like grain and fish for their daily sustenance. And when more powerful weapons became available, small groups began to seize control of these valuable commodities. This inequality in resources soon tipped over into inequality in power, and we started to adopt more primal, hierarchical forms of organization. Power was concentrated in masters, kings, pharaohs and emperors (and ideologies were born to justify their rule). Goliath-like states and empires -- with vast bureaucracies and militaries -- carved up and dominated the globe. What brought them down? Whether in the early cities of Cahokia in North America or Tiwanaku in South America, or the sprawling empires of Egypt, Rome and China, it was increasing inequality and concentrations of power that hollowed these Goliaths out before an external shock brought them crashing down. These collapses were written up as apocalyptic, but in truth they were usually a blessing for most of the population. Now we live in a single global Goliath. Growth obsessed, extractive institutions like the fossil fuel industry, big tech and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways of annihilating our species, from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast, complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global, swift and irreversible. All of us now face a choice -- we must learn to democratically control Goliath, or the next collapse may be our last"--
Subjects: Civilization.; Regression (Civilization); Regression (Civilization); Social change.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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No straight road takes you there : essays for uneven terrain / by Solnit, Rebecca,author.; Solnit, Rebecca.Essays.Selections.;
"Beginning with an essay about a three-hundred-year-old violin and what it can tell us about forests, abundance, and climate, and ending with on about a prisoner dreaming of seeing the ocean, No Straight Road Takes You There deftly bridges the political and the literary, offering unique insights, nuanced understanding, and inspiration for the challenging work ahead. In her latest essay collection, the award-winning author explores climate change, feminism, democracy, hope, and power and its abuse. Throughout she asks us to heed the stories we tell or have been told, and the ways those stories can be, or should be changed. Solnit offers a reappraisal of the value of indirect consequences, an embrace of unpredictability, slowness, and imperfection in the politics of how to change the world"--
Subjects: Essays.; Climatic changes.; Democracy.; Feminism.; Hope.; Power (Social sciences); Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Upheaval : turning points for nations in crisis / by Diamond, Jared M.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 470-484) and index.Offers a new theory of how and why some nations recover from national trauma and others do not.
Subjects: Crisis management; Social change; Social history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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What it takes to heal : how transforming ourselves can change the world / by Hemphill, Prentis,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now, more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with each other, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how. Becoming the People of Our Time argues that the principles of embodiment awareness -- the awareness of our body's sensations, habits, and the beliefs that inform them -- are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist, who has partnered with Brene Brown, Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. They demonstrate a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, "what would it do to movements, to our society and culture to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure, and everything we create?""--
Subjects: Healing.; Psychic trauma.; Social change.; Spiritual healing.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
"Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Winners take all : the elite charade of changing the world / by Giridharadas, Anand,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Social change; Elite (Social sciences);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Climate justice : hope, resilience, and the fight for a sustainable future / by Robinson, Mary,1944-author.; Palmer, Caitríona,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Environmental justice.; Climatic changes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The parrot and the igloo : climate and the science of denial / by Lipsky, David,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographic key to online citations."The New York Times best-selling author explores how "anti-science" became so virulent in American life--through a history of climate denial and its consequences. In 1956, the New York Times prophesied that once global warming really kicked in, we could see parrots in the Antarctic. In 2010, when science deniers had control of the climate story, Senator James Inhofe and his family built an igloo on the Washington Mall and plunked a sign on top: AL GORE'S NEW HOME: HONK IF YOU LOVE CLIMATE CHANGE. In The Parrot and the Igloo, best-selling author David Lipsky tells the astonishing story of how we moved from one extreme (the correct one) to the other. With narrative sweep and a superb eye for character, Lipsky unfolds the dramatic narrative of the long, strange march of climate science. The story begins with a tale of three inventors--Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla--who made our technological world, not knowing what they had set into motion. Then there are the scientists who sounded the alarm once they identified carbon dioxide as the culprit of our warming planet. And we meet the hucksters, zealots, and crackpots who lied about that science and misled the public in ever more outrageous ways. Lipsky masterfully traces the evolution of climate denial, exposing how it grew out of early efforts to build a network of untruth about products like aspirin and cigarettes. Featuring an indelible cast of heroes and villains, mavericks and swindlers, The Parrot and the Igloo delivers a real-life tragicomedy--one that captures the extraordinary dance of science, money, and the American character."--
Subjects: Climatic changes; Climatic changes.; Climatic changes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Genesis : artificial intelligence, hope, and the human spirit / by Kissinger, Henry,1923-2023,author.; Ferguson, Niall,writer of foreword.; Mundie, Craig,author.; Runde, Eleanor,author.; Schmidt, Eric,1955 April 27-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.'Genesis' is a radical new look at the future of AI, which has changed significantly since 'The Age of AI' (9780316273800) was written. It argues that humans cannot regulate AI and that only AI programs themselves can keep the technology from destroying us. Kissinger argues that AI could produce a utopia, where products are manufactured automatically, economies expand without human labour, and we will all be liberated to pursue our dreams. 'Genesis' is a posthumous publication of Kissinger's final book, which he was working on right up until the time of his death.
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence.; Social change.; Artificial intelligence; Technology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Nomad century : how climate migration will reshape our world / by Vince, Gaia,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Drawing on a career of environmental reporting and over two years of travel to the front lines of climate migration across the globe, an award-winning science journalist, in this urgent call to action, discusses the underreported, seismic consequences of climate change and how it will reshape humanity.
Subjects: Climatic changes; Environmental refugees.; Forced migration; Global environmental change;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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